Update: I finally looked at my bank's yearly spending chart and saw I spent $1,200 on takeout coffee.

The chart showed a single, huge bar for 'food and drink' that was bigger than my rent, which made me ask, has anyone else had a simple graph completely change how they see their money?

4 comments

4 Comments

victor_robinson3mo ago

That "simple graph" idea is backwards for me. The number is just a number, it doesn't change what the coffee is worth. My view on the spending was already set when I decided to buy it.

piper7793mo ago

It's like when you get a year-end summary from a music app. You see you played a song 200 times and suddenly you feel weird about it, like you overdid it. But you loved it every single time you hit play. The data just makes you second guess your own choices. I see this with food delivery apps too, the total makes me cringe even though each order felt fine in the moment. The number tries to rewrite the past feeling.

skyler_jackson2728d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, @dakota415 has me feeling personally attacked over here. I did the same thing last year and saw my "coffee and snacks" category was bigger than my car payment. Told myself I was just treating myself, but the graph made me realize I was basically paying for a small used car every year just in iced lattes and gas station granola bars. Now I look at the total and feel like I need to apologize to my future self for all those impulse buys.

dakota4153mo ago

So what if the bar is bigger than rent? You got a coffee every time you wanted one. Is seeing a big number on a graph supposed to make you enjoy all those past lattes less? Money is for spending on things you like.